Baden-Baden Free Jazz Meeting 1970

This scenic picture of downtown Baden-Baden is meant to signal more vintage goodies from the annual free jazz meetings in that town in Southwest Germany. We have posted excerpts from the 1967, 1969 and 1971 meetings before and we will have the 1977 coming up in a little while. So now for the 1970 set which I think is the most complete of the ones we have posted up to now. I had a set which ran to about six hours and thirty minutes, but this set adds another hour and introductions to most of the pieces heard.

This is recorded off radio, medium wave I would think. They are all in mono, though the intros indicate they were also broadcast in stereo. The introductions are by Joachim E. Behrendt most likely, the driving force behind these annual meetings. Occasionally one hears communications bursting in on the radio frequency, but not too often, fortunately.

I've been listening to these recordings over the last few weeks. There's too much in there to be summarised in a few sentences, but suffice it to say that the line-up reads like a who's who of European-based musicians in the impro-free jazz spectrum round about 1970. Most were invited, but some actually came along out of curiosity, like John Surman's Trio, and promptly sat in on several sessions.

These recordings feature all possible combinations, from the full free jazz orchestra to small groups to duos to solo performances. All in all, a treasure trove of what was happening at that particular point in time. The set lists are found with the individual zipped files in the comments section. Seven cdr-equivalents in all, running for about seven hours and thirty minutes. Thanks to Onx and a US-based trading partner for supplying the yummies. On to you, dear folks!

Don Cherry, trumpet, flute
Manfred Schoof, Tomasz Stanko, trumpet
Paul Rutherford, Albert Mangelsdorff, trombone
Steve Lacy, soprano saxophone
John Tchicai, soprano & alto saxophone
Trevor Watts, alto saxophone
Willem Breuker, alto, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Peter Brötzmann, alto, tenor & baritone saxophone
John Surman, baritone saxophone
Derek Bailey, guitar
Gunter Hampel, vibes, bass clarinet
Joachim Kühn, piano, alto saxophone
Irène Aebi, violin, vocals
Dave Holland, bass, cello
Barre Phillips, bass
Johnny Dyani, bass, cello
Peter Warren, bass
John Stevens, drums, percussion, cornet
Han Bennink, drums, percussion, dhung
Stu Martin, drums
Pierre Favre, drums, percussion
Karin Krog, Norma Winstone, vocals
Unknown, announcer